~* Rose de Noël *~

My mother-in-law (Mamie, as we call her) never fails at exceeding herself in kindness and in hospitality.

Last night, I arrived in France after midnight, downtrodden by a flu - I'd worked till the very last moment, left to the airport straight from the boutique - so rather exhausted and worn out. And what awaits on my bedside table...

Mamie had picked up a Christmas rose, rose de Noël, for me from her garden. She knows how much I love flowers. Next to the rose, a sweetest selection of Chanel 5. My favorite perfume.

 And of course the sheets on my bed were not only ironed, they were the prettiest ones she has, chosen based on my favorite color.

´Before my first morning here was over, she happened to come across an Art Deco powder box that has been in the family for almost hundred years. Two lovebirds, carved of silver, on a beautiful black box. Simply divine a piece, from the family of Uncle Jean, who fought in the forces of La Résistance during the Second World War... Uncle Jean, a pilot, who during the war had legendarily made an emergency landing right in the middle of the Champs-Élysées...

Knowing how much I love those stories, Mamie insisted on giving me this box she had inherited from Uncle Jean.

It's not even Christmas yet.

I am so touched, I can not put it in words.

It's not that Mamie would be swimming in money. Not at all. She is just the most generous, kindhearted and considerate person I have ever come across in this life. She goes absolutely out of her way to bring joy the people around her, always making it look breezily effortless. When I tried to thank her for the box, she just changed the topic, saying "Oh you know it's just an old piece, I couldn't use it for anything..." Yet I know she has treasured it for decades.

I don't hold idols, but Mamie is an exception to the rule.

I try so hard to learn from her, even a little something.

Let's see, if one day my daughter-in-law would invite me to come along to her honeymoon, like I invited Mamie to ours (but that's a whole another story...), I would have succeeded.

~*'♥'*~